


with the lights down low

by noblealice



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Alternate Universe - Human, Cunnilingus, Denial of Feelings, Eventual Happy Ending, F/M, Friends With Benefits, Mutual Pining, Oral Sex, POV Female Character, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Remote Control Vibrators, Sex Toys Under Clothing, Sharing a Bed, Vibrators
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-11-21
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:53:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27453046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noblealice/pseuds/noblealice
Summary: All human AU where Julie and the Phantoms are on their second year of touring as an opening act. Everyone is in their early to mid-twenties. Julie has trouble getting off before a show (part of her pre-show ritual) and Luke offers his help.“I’m sorry, I must be losing my mind. I thought I just heard you say ‘friends can give other friends orgasms.’”
Relationships: Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Comments: 34
Kudos: 319





	1. wicked game

**Author's Note:**

> Title from "Anytime, Anyplace" by Janet Jackson. This fic is un-beta'd because I was too embarrassed to send the smut to a friend, so all mistakes are my own.

It all started with that damn Gloria Glam, an aging rockstar on a final farewell tour they were the opening act for, who one night after three whole months after they had spent opening for her, finally deigned to call Julie into her green room.

"Let’s have a girls chat, yeah?" 

She had leaned in close with her exotic British accent and made Julie feel important that she was being confided in. Made her feel special and like the band was going places and would continue to climb the ladder if Julie could just work the spotlight like Gloria. 

It was here that her current problems started, because Gloria’s surefire way to have an electric show was to be as loose and free as possible, not with drugs - which had the chance of ruining a singers voice - but with her body’s all-natural stress relief function. Honestly, the reverence in the woman’s voice as she expounded on all the wonders of orgasms made Julie feel like she’d walked into a pyramid scheme.

This is where the press-coaching that Danielle was always drilling into them came in handy. Julie schooled her features into a proper approximation of gratitude and promised to take Gloria up on her words of wisdom.

She in no way let on how utterly dejected she felt by Gloria’s ‘advice’ but it got in her head, like a parasite that wormed around, infecting her thoughts. Shows started to suffer and even Danielle, who was only on the tour bus to manage junkets and the rare radio interview approached Julie about maybe skipping a signing so she could nap before the show.

So Julie ordered her first vibrator that afternoon and since then not a single performance had gone by without Julie coming first with her trusty little vibe. She sometimes cuts it close - privacy was a hard commodity to find on a tour but it really did relax her and help her through the pre-show moments before the music and energy of the crowd took over. 

Cut to today, about a year after Gloria’s advice and halfway through their second summer tour, where she’s now cry-yelling at her best friend that she can’t orgasm without help. 

This is _not_ how she pictured this day going when she woke up. 

In her defence, it was a horrible time of year; the anniversary of her mom’s passing was a week away and it always brought with it horrible memories and a reflective tint to all the successes and failures of the past year. She was about two weeks away from her period, which is when she was at her most anxious and to cap off the shit sandwich that was her day, her trusty vibrator, the one she’d had since that wretched Gloria Glam’s interference, just stopped working. For no reason. It just… _died_.

So she was frustrated and upset and crying when Luke found her in her hotel room. And although her best friend has gotten better at crying women than he was with crying teenage girls, he still looked utterly freaked out, especially because she couldn’t properly explain the problem.

“Julie, I’m not leaving this room until you tell me why you’re sobbing into a pillow. Can I at least get you some chocolate?” He hedged, but he knew as well as she did that she didn’t like eating dairy this close to a show to preserve her voice.

She did her best to explain in vague terms but he was persistent and kept prodding and poking and _not leaving_ so she eventually just ended up yelling at him to embarrass him enough that it would force him to leave with his stupid, well meaning, metaphorical, tail between his legs.

Except he didn’t run for the nearest exit as soon as he found out, he looked….contemplative. It was then that she considered if orgasm-denial could lead to hearing ridiculous things. Because then Luke suggested that he could _help_ her.

“I’m sorry, I must be losing my mind. I thought I just heard you say ‘friends can give other friends orgasms.’”

“Friends _can_ give each other orgasms, especially if it helps one friend out!”

“You’re being ridiculous. I never should have said anything, please just let me search for a hole to crawl into and die in.”

“Julie, let me do this for you.”

“No, you don’t get it. I just, ugh, Luke--I sometimes--I can’t--” Shit, there was nothing for it. Might as well get her whole embarrassing life over now. In for a penny and all that.

“I just _can’t_ , okay? Not without a vibe, and certainly not with an audience. It’s, well, I’ve never, um, notwithanotherperson. Okay?” She stares at him hard, daring him to disparage her past partners that he hated so much at the time. “So can you just leave me alone?” Julie can totally try meditating or yoga or something, right? How long does it take to master either of those? Surely not more than two hours. So she’ll still have some time for vocal warm ups tomorrow before the show.

But Luke’s got his concentrating face on, not a teasing line or crease to be seen. He looks _determined_? Oh, this is bad.

“Would it really be so awful to try?” Great, now he looks like a kicked puppy and that’s not really fair. She steels herself against it though.

“So what, you want to be bandmates with benefits? You that hard up with the groupies that you’re resorting to---” He shuts her up with a look. They both know Luke better than that. In all the years she’s known Luke, he’s never been serious about a girl and hardly entertains the attention of people outside the family they’ve managed to carve out in this crazy business.

He moves closer to sit on the edge of the bed before wiping at the tears still on her cheeks, his fingers gentle but calloused. “Let me help you. It’s okay to get help from your friends.”

And that’s just not fair, throwing her own words back at her.

She whispers into his palm. “Last year was different. You were suffering. I barely did anything.”

“You probably saved my life, Julie. You definitely saved my relationship with my parents. You’re a human wrecking ball but you don’t have to do everything alone.”

She doesn’t know what to say to that. Luke was always so embarrassed to need help that they didn’t talk about it much at the time. Now she knows how he felt.

He seems to take her silence as assent, or at least as a sign to continue convincing her. “Okay, so we gotta attack this from all sides. First thing is to calm you down, you’re still breathing hard.” Then, in a move that is the opposite of calming, he toes off his shoes and starts unbuckling his belt.

She almost tells him to stop when he removes his shirt but his face asks her to wait, to trust him, and she does. So when he motions for her to scooch forward on the bed, she moves to grant him access to the area behind her. He settles himself down into a seated position, his legs on either side of hers, her t-shirt clad back to his bare chest and he reaches around to place a warm hand over her the fabric above her heart.

“Deep breath in for me now,” and she complies, her chest raising his hand with her inhale and she feels him breathing behind her. “Now blow out all the bad feelings,” and she exhales through her mouth, imagining that she can blow away all her troubles. They’ve done things like this last year and it’s easy to fall into a rhythm.

They sit like this for maybe twenty minutes before Luke removes his hand, moving it to her shoulder. He brings his other hand up and begins massaging her gently, just like when she gets kinks in her neck after they spend too much time bent over a notebook filled with lyrics. He doesn’t stray down her back or her arms, he keeps the touch light and soothing and she almost forgets about where this is headed, her eyes closed in enjoyment.

“Okay, now move forward, I’m going to lay next to you.”

“Luke..”

“Nothing’s happening tonight, Jules. I’m just here to provide comfort. Like you did with me.” 

He turns off the light and in a small voice she gives in to a nagging fear. “What if someone saw you come in here?”

“After last year, no one will talk, you can just relax and sleep.” She’s turned to face him, her hands under her chin, as she tries to pluck up her courage.

“What if I--”

“What?” He faces her too, his face hard to read in the dark.

“Should we talk? Or make ground rules?”

“Ground rules? Uh, smart point. Boundaries are healthy.” But his voice sounds tight.

“Okay, so is this just a one time thing?” She asks.

“How about just until you get sorted out with a new vibe?” Right. Best to keep things in perspective, her heart seriously couldn’t take it if there wasn’t an end date in sight. It’d get attached and then she’d be in trouble. Worse trouble. It was one thing to be extremely fond of your best friend. It was another to fall in love with him. Which is perhaps why she heard the next words come out of her mouth.

“Okay. I think we should keep it to sex, no kissing.” A girl’s gotta protect herself in some, small, infinitesimal way, right? Surely this would keep things strictly physical and keep pesky emotions out of it. Luke doesn’t seem offended by her suggestion, but a strange look passes over his face that she can’t decipher in the dark.

“Sure thing, Vivian.” At her blank look, he suddenly _does_ look offended. “Oh come on, I know Alex has made you watch 'Pretty Woman' with him at _least_ twice.” 

“True, I guess I was just surprised you remembered more than Julia Roberts’ tits.”

His eyes bug out at the insinuation and his mouth opens wider in shock. “Hey, BIG mistake. Big! HUGE!” She laughs and swats his arm and it feels comfortable, just talking in the dark like this. It feels like _them_ again.

“Okay, so just before a show, just sex and just until I find a replacement.”

“Right, if that’s what you want.” And again, he sounds strained.

“I don’t think we should tell anyone.”

“Not even Flynn? You tell her everything.”

“ _Especially_ not Flynn! Ugh, she’ll just act weird about it.”

He seems to consider this a long time before agreeing. “Okay, you know best.”

There’s some comfortable silence before Luke asks “So…..with the other guys, were they all selfish jerks? That’s not the feeling I got when you were dating them. And I can’t see you putting up with that.” It’s the most they’ve ever talked about her past relationships, Luke was always polite but cold to the guys she's dated in the past. She always thought he resented the distraction from the band.

“It’s complicated. Some of them really tried, but I’d get so in my head about it that I couldn't--” She pauses for a moment, considering her words. “I guess I couldn’t relax enough.” 

“Hey, it’s not your fault, don’t blame yourself.”

Which was easy for him to say, but a whole different thing to believe. In the end, they’d all left her. Suddenly exhausted, she mumbled out, “Goodnight Luke,” signalling that she was done with this line of conversation. She hoped he’d take the hint, he could be stubborn when he wanted to be.

His response was just to sigh and shift onto his back. “Goodnight Jules.”

She wakes up with her head on his chest and her legs tangled with his as light begins to dance through the curtains. His fingers are drawing absentmindedly on her arm. It’s not the _worst_ way to wake up.

“Good morning.” Luke yawns out. It’s not as awkward as she feared, they’ve shared the bed before and woken up plenty of times twisted up in each other.

“You still want to try?” She nods but this isn’t good enough for Luke, the bastard.

“With your words, Julie.”

“Yes, I want to.” She says to the comforter, avoiding his gaze. It’s not cowardly if the pattern on the duvet is just _really_ interesting, right?

“We can stop at any time. Just say the word.”

“I’m good, Luke.” Because now her brain has had a night to adjust to the idea, her body is on board. Her skin is alight where it’s touching his and anticipation curls in her belly.

However, because she’s been burned before, she adds, “just don’t get pouty when nothing happens, okay? It takes a long time to get me going under good circumstances so--” His eyes flash with something fierce, but he gentles them before he moves his finger to her lips. “Stop putting up barriers.”

Luke gives a wayward curl a short tug. “Lay back against the headboard, okay? Keep your eyes closed.”

Some nerves start to flit back in and she can’t tamp them down. What in the world are they _doing_?

Luke seems to sense her change in mood and shushes her, pressing a kiss on either side of her temple before getting out and walking to the foot of the bed where he kneels down. 

He removes the duvet and smooths his hands up and down her bare legs, warmth seeping in and leaving trails wherever he touches. He lifts one leg and brushes a quick kiss against her ankle, then an open mouthed kiss by her knee, then another higher up her thigh. He continues his path towards her panties, leaving wet kisses in his wake until he reaches the fabric. Instead of pulling it down, like she expected, he lifts the other leg and follows the same, slow and torturous path with his lips.

With her eyes closed, she can’t see his expression but there’s a sense of worship as he takes his time exploring her body and discovering what makes her breath hitch and what makes her stretch against him like a cat. He murmurs encouraging words every time she reacts and it makes her want to moan, but she bites her lip to keep any sound from escaping.

Finally, he hooks two fingers in her underwear and tugs it down to reveal herself to him. She should feel self-conscious but instead she feels revered by the way he gusts out his breath all at once. “Fuck, Julie, you’re beautiful.”

He continues to speak words of praise into her skin as he resumes kissing her body, (close, but never where she wants him) and she can’t hear his exact words over the roaring in her ears. She’s not wet enough for his fingers and is about to tell him so when he places his mouth over her. Her hips buck up off the mattress and he just narrowly misses getting his nose dislocated. 

He chuckles but it’s a warm sound, filled with fondness. He returns his tongue to her and this time she can’t keep the moan inside at the little bit of contact. He alternates flat swipes of his tongue with swirls around her clit and she feels like there’s a fire in her blood. She curls her toes and twists the sheets with her hands to keep from grabbing at Luke’s hair and grinding into his face.

“Don’t stop.” She needs more. She needs release. She needs her damn electric orgasm-buddy to not be dead on the carpet, five feet away where she threw it last night in frustration. Which leads her to wonder if it’s taking too long, if Luke is getting tired, if he’ll give up soon and leave, just like the others...

As if reading her mind, he stops . “You got tense, everything okay?”

She stares at the ceiling, unable to look at him as she whispers, “I’m afraid it’s not enough.”

Luke reaches down to grab something from the pocket of his jeans - his phone, she belatedly realizes. “It’s not ideal, but maybe something with a high tempo will--”

“So help me, if you play _Tom Sawyer_ right now I’m never speaking to you again.” She grits out, hands still clutching the sheets in a vice-like grip.

He holds up his phone in mock surrender after barking out a laugh. “Geddy Lee always said that they were either loved or hated, with no middle ground, didn’t know until now where you fell on the spectrum.”

She risks a glance down at him to roll her eyes, but not before imprinting the image of _Luke_ between her legs with bedhead and that intense expression on his face.

“How about you tell me if this choice pleases the princess?” He plays with the settings on his phone, presumably setting his ringer to vibrate and then presses a few more buttons before a sensual guitar twangs out of the speakers and she hears the dulcet tones of Chris Issak wash over her. 

_The world was on fire and no one could save me but you  
It's strange what desire will make foolish people do_

It’s one of her karaoke songs and the familiarity of it comforts her, she hums along and so does Luke, sending gentle vibrations across her skin as he kisses his way down her thighs towards her clit again. 

_What a wicked game you play, to make me feel this way  
What a wicked thing to do, to let me dream of you_

He wraps his phone in the sheet and moves it to rest low on her stomach and it’s still warm from the time spent in his palm yet it sends a shiver through her. The vibrations from the timbre of the singer's voice seem to resonate through her bones, causing her back to arch slightly. Luke adds his tongue again and it feels _divine_. She could live in this moment forever.

She’s so close…..and then she isn’t. Like a the tide going back to sea, she feels herself becoming more preoccupied with the show they have tonight, with what she’s going to wear and most importantly, with whether this is going to irrevocably fuck up her friendship with Luke. 

He must have sensed this second shift in her, because suddenly Luke’s voice was clearing away all the intrusive thoughts with his sex-gruff tone. “Hey, Julie. Open your eyes. Look at me.”

“I got you, okay. Trust me.” He says it as a command, but there’s a question in his eyes. Like he wants to be enough, if she’ll let him. It’s utterly disarming and utterly sexy and she remembers when she was a silly teenage girl with a crush and how many times she’d come imagining a similar scenario. She may have outgrown the crush, but the trust she feels with Luke has only intensified and so she nods and continues watching, seeing the barest hint of a smile on his face before he returns to his ministrations. 

The song ends up repeating three times before she’s close again. But it’s like a wave cresting higher and higher. She does her best to keep her eyes open and trained on Luke because sometimes he glances up to check and he always moans into her skin when he confirms that she’s still looking. It’s the hottest thing she’s ever experienced in her life.

“I got you, Julie. I got you.” He repeats and she thinks back to all the times Luke has been there for her, how often his understanding and acceptance has made her feel at home, both on stage and off. There’s no one else in the world she trusts more and giving into this tiny piece of vulnerability, letting him look after her this one time, it’s suddenly easy, easier than breathing. Luke’s never going to leave her.

The wave that was building inside her is crashing against the shore with all the force of the ocean and she has to turn her head into the pillow to muffle her cries of pleasure.

She lays back, panting from exertion, feeling like she just ran a marathon and she feels a smile steal over her face and tears prick her eyes. Maybe she’s not as broken as she thought.

Luke guides her through the aftermath, hands drifting up and down her legs, lips leaving one last kiss on her shin before he replaces the duvet over her and stands up. 

“Get some rest, Julie.” 

Her eyes drift closed again but this time with peace and after she hears the door click closed behind his retreating form, she snuggles into his pillow, feeling sated and sleepy and safe.


	2. songbird

In the beginning, nothing much changed. It’s a relief because when she walked down to breakfast that first morning, Julie was sure that her face might as well have been a neon sign that read ‘I just had sex with Luke and ruined everything’. But the only one acting weird was her and by Reggie’s third trip up for more bacon to crumble over his waffles, she’d calmed down enough to notice that no one was noticing her. Luke was downing his gross protein shake that he swore by and Alex was complaining that the hotel’s fruit salad had too much melon.

Even the show that night went off without too many problems. Her voice was clear and true but she found it hard to make eye contact with Luke without then picturing him between her legs. It was the wrong vibe for the song they were singing. Luckily, he seemed to understand and stayed on his side of the stage for the next two songs. However, right before their duet of ‘Tonight with You is Magic’, which was a recognized crowd pleaser, he crossed his eyes and stuck out his tongue at her. It made her laugh and stumble through the beginning notes but it was enough to startle her out of the visual in her head. They’re able to connect on stage like always. As they take their final bow, holding hands with Alex and Reggie, Julie just feels content and safe and incredibly lucky to have Luke in her life.

They continue the routine for three more shows, Luke sneaking in the night before to her hotel room, and waking her up with his patience and skilled tongue and innate sense of knowing exactly what to say to get her to come. It’s an exercise in giving up control and it only works because Luke always gives it right back.

She has the off-hand thought that wonders if she should be offended that afterwards he always leaves or that he is so completely unaffected by the time they spend together but then she remembers the rules she laid out and she can’t really be offended that he’s sticking to them, right? That’d just be insane.

Things change after their stop in Toronto. It’s stressful because even though it’s only a two hour drive from the venue in Buffalo, and their only stop in Canada, it still officially makes this their first _international_ tour. They blow themselves up pretty big on that fact before Alex is worried that he’s lost his passport and is tearing apart the tour bus to find it in the twenty minutes they have before they reach the border.

Their usual games to pass the time come to a halt as everyone retreats to their bags to triple check that it’s not hiding in their things. Luke is acting weird, not letting Alex near his things to see with his own eyes that his passport isn’t hiding in his socks and it’s not until they’ve reached the hotel that Julie understands why.

After the crisis was averted (it was in the tour manager’s glovebox), Luke enters her room with his hands behind his back. “I know you haven’t had time to order anything with the whirlwind of the tour, but after the soundcheck the other day, I, uh, peeled off. Went shopping.” He brings his hands out to reveal a plain brown paper bag but Julie instantly knows what’s in it.

And for some strange reason dread pools in her stomach. She steels her spine and plasters a half smile on her face that she believes is convincing. So what if their arrangement is over already? Luke is doing her a favour, he’s being an incredible friend. She’s grateful, _really_. That’s this feeling that she’s experiencing. Gratefulness.

“Um, the girls at the shop were very, um, insistent that products be bought by the person using them and they had uh, strong opinions about my idea, but we came to an agreement.”

“Thanks, Luke.” She says, feeling unsure and out of her depth. How does one thank a friend for all the orgasms he clearly would rather not give anymore if he’s buying her sex toys?

“It’s um, for people to use together. I thought we could try it today? Before tonight’s show?” He thrusts the bag at her, his mannerisms slightly off but she can’t get a read on why. Perhaps her smile isn’t convincing enough and he’s worried that she’s grown attached, which is making him run for the hills even harder?

She dumps out the box into her hand and...it’s smaller than she expected. From the picture, it’s a vibrator that looks more like a panty-liner than anything she’s ever seen before and she resolutely does not notice how it says “For couples!” cheerily in block letters on the box.

Belatedly, her mind catches on the word ‘together’, so she’s not on her own just yet. And Luke is looking at her expectantly so she tells herself to enjoy what she can of this while she can and walks to the bathroom to wash it and try it on. She can’t find the remote control, but the vibrator fits easily against her skin when she sits and stands and after running cold water over her wrists to calm herself down, she exits the bathroom, smoothing down her skirt with a self-conscious smile…only to see Alex and Reggie sitting in the room, watching her TV and debating on the merits of the members of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

“Uh, hi guys. What are you all doing in my room?”

“Danielle sent us, said we had a last minute press thing to hype up tonight’s show. Give away a pair of free tickets.”

“Oh? Okay, I’ll just go change.” She tries to exchange a glance at Luke, but he’s joined in with the now heated debate, arguing that Leonardo is the coolest one to Alex’s sputtering protests.

Which is when Danielle enters, and Julie really has to start locking her door, or at least asking people to knock, “No need, it’s radio so you can wear what you’ve got on. Besides, we gotta get a move on, the interview is in 45 and it’s going to take some time to get there through traffic. Sorry for it being so last minute, but we still have some tickets left to sell.”

Julie sighs and tromps down to the hotel lobby with her boys in tow. In the elevator ride she got pulled in to be moderator of their debate but since she agrees with Reggie that Michelangelo is the best, it’s not really unbiased on her part.

They file into the van waiting for them and after strapping in and asking the driver to blast the radio, Julie feels something. A sensation that she’s familiar with but not outside the confines of her bed.

She looks at Luke to corroborate her suspicions, but he’s seriously concentrating on his phone at the moment.

Maybe it’s her imagination and the roads are just really bumpy in Canada?

Except that just as she has that thought the sensation increases. She presses her knees together and it just brings the vibe in closer contact with her clit. It’s still on a low enough setting that it doesn’t make her gasp out loud or anything noticeable but she does lose the lyrics she was previously singing along with the radio.

Her phone buzzes with a notification.

Luke: is this ok  
Luke: ?

Warmth fills her that has nothing to do with the humming under her skirt.

She quickly responds in the affirmative with a thumbs up emoji and then, because she can see that Luke is typing again, with the word ‘yes’ to cut him off before he asks for some non-emoji response.

He grins down at his phone and she can’t help an answering grin down at hers. This is new to Julie, something secret and exciting but shared. And sharing it with Luke means it’s safe.

So she relaxes back into the seat and picks up the song on the radio, singing along to the chorus with her best friends.

For all of Danielle’s bluster about being late, they get to the tiny studio’s crowded green room in record time and are left to wait until some commercials are finished being recorded in the studio they’re about to use, something that apparently takes a long time. By the time they make it to the station’s green room, Julie’s feeling pleasantly loose and warm and hyper-aware of her body and where fabric rubs or swishes against her skin. Her fingers and toes are tingling in time with the pulses and she’s grateful that her cheeks are less likely to show the flush she feels.

The radio channel’s broadcast is being blasted from speakers in the corner so they continue their game of singing along. 

After about ten minutes of near-torture, one of the PA’s for the radio show comes in with white boards and is obviously tasked with babysitting them. “Hi, I’m Anika. This week is Survey Week, so we’ve been getting all our guests to play a modified version of the Newlywed Game.” 

Despite their very obvious groans, she continues. “We’ll split you into teams and ask about your likes and dislikes, you obviously know the drill.”

Luke and Julie’s eyes meet. This has plagued them since they first started doing press. Probing questions about on-stage chemistry that had to mean more. They already know how the pairing up will go and by now, there’s an unspoken agreement where they both purposefully tank some easy questions to keep the more rabid fans from getting weird ideas. 

“The questions during the show will have to be a surprise, but we need to get you radio ready. You can’t just hold up your answer because the listeners can’t see it. But you both can’t blurt out your answers at the same time because then no one will understand what’s said. To practice, we have some musical history questions.”

“Luke is screwed if it’s anything more recent than 1979.” Reggie laughs, pointing across the room to Luke’s shocked face.

Luke stands up. “I know key things after then!” 

“Just knowing Nirvana doesn’t count.” Alex tosses in.

Instead of arguing, Luke’s eyes glint and his ‘I’m being charming’ smile appears. “Well, I’ve got you guys for everything I don’t know. Alex fills me in on pop, Reggie keeps me up to date with punk and with country and Julie knows everything R&B.”

“Are there any country questions?” Reggie asks eagerly, clearly ready to display his knowledge but Anika just sighs, world weary and clearly ready to be done with them.

The vibrator under her skirt is still on a low enough setting that Julie can focus on the game and the rules that Anika is laying out for them. Soon enough, she’s gone back to check on something else and they’re left to their own devices. Which of course means that the game continues, only with each of them taking turns asking questions, of increasing difficulty and obscureness.

When Julie doesn’t ring in quick enough to tell Alex that Sister Rosetta Tharpe was the mother of modern rock, the sensation increases and suddenly her focus is pulled in two directions.

After that, for every question she gets wrong, she gets a 30 second pulse of a higher setting, it’s not long enough to get her off, so she’s left just aroused and on the edge and desperate for this interview to start so it can end already.

It’s thrilling, never to know when the next pulse will be and she finds her body turning molten and liquid in response. She’s glad she’s sitting down, not only does it push the vibrator closer to her clit, it helps when, after a particularly intense burst, she can collapse back into the leather seat. She’s sure that her knees would have buckled, had she been standing.

She wants to moan in satisfaction but she has to be quiet and pretend to still be paying attention to the conversation. 

However, in her current state, she missed how they went from Rush’s influence on modern rock to Reggie listing all the things he could eat right now but it doesn’t matter because that’s when the PA returns with a sharp knock and a pained smile. “Alex and Reggie, you’re up first so come with me.” 

“Just wondering, how long does the segment usually take to record?” Luke asks, an innocent expression on his face that Anika sees right through.

“About twenty minutes, _why_?” She squints at him and Julie squirms as the setting is raised another notch.

“Just curious, is all.”

He smiles his megawatt teeth at her and the frosty Anika is momentarily disarmed, but she soon regains control again and wrangles Reggie and Alex into the hall, telling them again that there’s no food in the studio.

“You two, we can’t have you hearing the questions early, so…” She flips a switch by the door and suddenly they are left in silence as she leaves. 

Well, a near silence. There’s the faint buzzing emanating from under her skirt and Julie quickly gets paranoid and says, “Nothing during the show!” Her wide eyes trying to convey exactly what she means.

Because what if it gives feedback to the mics and they are exposed? That’s not exactly a story that Danielle will be able to spin nor is it something she can easily explain to her Dad, who still has a google alert on her name.

She watches Luke nod before he responds. “Understood. I won’t let anything bad happen to you, Julie.”

“Thanks. And I know that.” She shares a small smile.

“This still okay? While we wait, I mean.” He asks, and he moves to lean against the door so they’ll know as soon as Anika comes in again.

She takes a while to respond, because while, yes, she is technically feeling very good right now, she also wants to run out the door and find the nearest enclosed space so she can take care of herself before the twenty minutes is up. It’s a hard sentiment to express and she wishes she could reply with her usual slew of emojis. In the end, she settles with a simple, “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Just fine, is it? Is that why you’ve been squeezing the chair like a vice?”

He’s got a cocky grin on his face and she wants to wipe it off. But she also doesn’t want to move. This is such a strange situation. She wishes it were simpler. If she were a different person she’d kiss it off. She’d walk over and press him against the door until he was the one feeling ‘fine’. Or better yet, she’d get down on her knees in front of him and slowly unbuckle his belt. 

Because friends can give each other orgasms, right? (She’s never letting him live that down)

If she were a different person, Julie would tease and play until he was the one flushed and pink and finding it hard to breathe without panting.

She’d see his face filled with awe and wonder at _her_. He’d look down and she’d feel powerful because she brought him to this point of breaking. 

An unfamiliar emotion swoops down low in her belly and settles there like a weight and her world narrows down to just them in this moment.

“What are you thinking about?” He asks.

And someone absolutely has taken control of her lust-addled brain because she says, just above the whisper of the buzzing, “sucking you off.”

She’s rewarded with the highest setting yet and her eyes close from the overwhelming sensations that are set rocketing off through her skin and making her muscles jump. She misses his reaction, but she imagines she hears him say “you’re gonna be the death of me”.

She keeps her eyes closed, embarrassed by her confession and inundated with pleasure.

“You gonna take me apart like I do to you?”

“Yes.” She pants, pure _want_ suffusing her voice.

“Make me come like I’m gonna make you come?”

“Yes.”

“That’s right. Gonna make you feel good.”

“God, _please_ , Luke.”

“I got you.”

There’s a rush of pleasure and a delectable zing through her veins as she comes, biting down on her tongue because they still have to be quiet and that sends a secondary thrill through her, that they did this here.

The vibrator is turned completely off and she’s glad, she needs the relief, still super sensitive. A minute later, she asks, “shit, how do I look?”

“Thoroughly fucked.”

“Bastard.” She laughs and just walks on shaky legs to the mirror with a ring of lights around it. She scrapes her hair back into a high ponytail and presses fresh powder against her dewy skin and takes a few breaths in through her nose to calm her down.

Anika comes to claim them as she’s freshening her lipstick and they follow her down the hall. She can’t cross her eyes but she sticks her tongue out at Luke before the red light comes on and they make it through the interview with flying colours and even manage to beat Alex and Reggie’s score.

Later that night, as she’s washing her face, she hears her hotel room door open and close.

“I seriously need to talk to everyone about knocking.” She says as she exits the bathroom with a smile.

But Luke looks serious and her dread from earlier in the day returns with his words. “We should, uh… talk.”

“Oh, um, we don’t have to.”

“It’s just, we talk about everything, I don’t like that there’s this subject we avoid.” 

“Really? I kinda liked that about our arrangement.”

“I’m not saying we have to talk about why you had trouble in the past. I mean, I kinda want to ask about where all those guys are now so I can beat them up for making you think this was _your_ problem, but that’s not really talking.” He shifts his weight from foot to foot, a nervous tell of his. “Um, but anyways, maybe you should talk to someone though. Someone...who talks about things professionally?”

And at first she’s so relieved that he isn’t talking about her regrettable comment in the green room until his meaning settles in her brain.

“Like another shrink?” She’s beyond flustered now and a little upset.

“Not all doctors are like Dr. Turner.” He reaches up to rub the back of his neck, his cheeks pink. “I talked to one last year, during, uh, everything.” 

He hasn’t met her eyes this whole conversation, until now. “It helped.” His voice is sincere and now she’s the one who can’t hold his gaze.

“I didn’t know that.” She says, her voice quiet. She wonders what else he hasn’t told her.

“Hey, now you know.” He smirks at her and suddenly they’re back on footing that she can manage. She rationalizes that Luke probably just wants to be there for his friend. 

“It could help. I don’t want to think of you having any problems, Julie.”

“I’ll think about it. Okay?”

“Yeah, that’s all I’m saying. You can do your research, find someone who fits, maybe even someone who specializes in….these types of things.” It’s a little adorable that he can’t say ‘sex’ around her, especially after the last few weeks.

“Okay.” She says again, this time a bit firmer. 

Still, something shifts between them after this. 

Julie just doesn’t notice it until it’s too late.

**Author's Note:**

> Well, there it is, my first foray into multi-chaptered fic. I hope to not make people wait too long between chapters, I have everything plotted out and half of the next chapter written but I also have a full time job. Tags will be added to the fic as new chapters are posted.


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